Of Swords and Devils
by TheMoonKit
Summary: When one seemingly mad man turns what is supposed to be innocent fun into one of the biggest nightmares of modern times, what are people supposed to do? What do those trapped in the nightmare do? Why, do you even have to ask? "We fight."
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **The Following is a fan-based creation. I own nothing of the Sword Art Online or Highschool DxD series. Please support the official release.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Link Start**

November 6th, 2022, was supposed to be a day of celebration and excitement. A day where gaming would take gamers into the very games they played with the release of the NerveGear helmet using FullDive technology that allowed players to enter games designed for it. Excitement had spread all across Japan when the day arrived for its release and millions had flocked to stores to get their hands on the device.

For the parents of Hyoudou Issei, it was the greatest nightmare either of them had faced.

Their Son had personally been saving up to buy the device, and his mother had supported the action, believing it would give him a much-needed distraction from his less than _innocent _hobbies. She had personally driven him to the store days before it was released and constantly checked in on him as he stayed days after, camping the store out to be one of the first to buy NerveGear.

The look of utter joy her child had on his face as he dashed to the car with the box containing the gaming device had warmed her heart. She had not seen her boy be so excited about something in a long time, and that included all the things he bought for his _other _interest. She had happily helped him hook the device up with his friends who had come over once they learned Issei had obtained a NerveGear and watched him as he entered the game, watching his actions from a monitor they had hooked up to the device to see what he saw.

Then it came.

Emergency Warning broadcasts and taken over every TV across Japan, telling people of the danger of NerveGear and how removing the device would kill the wearer, and that users had no way of logging out. Mrs. Hyoudou had been confused before the realization set in that her son was currently wearing one of the death machines she and several million others were being warned about.

Matsuda and Motohama had to forcefully keep the hysterical mother from ripping the helmet off their friend's head when she dashed upstairs to try and save her baby boy.

Mr. Hyoudou had immediately left his work and raced home when he heard the news. He arrived to find his wife crying her eyes out as his son's friends trying to calm her down. In his bed, Issei looked peaceful, but on the screen they had been watching him on, he was running across a field as fast as he could.

Mr. Hyoudou wasted no time in calling the ambulance to transport his son to a nearby hospital after it was announced special care rooms were being set up for victims of the now dubbed "SAO Hostage Incident."

He stood, holding his crying wife in his arms as the ambulance with his son sped off into the distance. Across the street, he saw the Kirigaya family doing the same, only the mother of two holding onto her crying daughter as their adopted son was taken away.

* * *

Sirzechs Lucifer had never seen his wife so angry before.

In all their time together, he had not once experienced her anger, mild irritation from his antics sure, but outright rage?

_So this is what it feels like to be so small._ He couldn't help but think as his wife, Grayfia Lucifuge, towered over him. The massive amount of blood lust mixed with her demonic aura she was releasing made even him shrink back in fear.

"I told you... I _told you_ not to buy one of those accursed human devices!" The scariest thing about her was she did not shout a single word at him, nor had her facial expression change beyond a neutral stare. The small twitch in her hand told him it was taking every ounce of her iron Will to keep from lashing out at him. Doing such a thing would typically be a forbidden and borderline heretical action, but in this case, she had every right to lash out at him.

"Grayfia I-" The Maou Lucifer's mouth clicked shut the instant his wife held up a single finger. He fought down the urge to shudder as the fire in her eyes grew in intensity.

"I am your Wife, I am your head Maid. I will listen and follow every one of your orders without question, carry out all your desires to the best of my abilities." She spoke, her voice soft but firm, anger just on the tip of her tongue. "But more than any of that, I am a _Mother._ A mother of one, precious, little boy who we were blessed with after many, _many, _years of trying. And now _our child is stuck in a death game we cannot save him from!"_

Sirzechs quietly looked to his left, his one and only son laying on a bed, looking to be peacefully asleep despite the numerous medical Devils hovering over him, moitoring all his vitals. They had attempted to use magic, initially believing the human device to be just that, a human device. That's when they got a special warning from the device itself.

_[Any further attempts to release the wearer from their NerveGear by means of Magic will automatically activate the electromagnetic microwaves transmitter_

_and kill the user. This is your first and final warning.]_

Sirzechs frowned as his wife moved away from him, her menacing aura disappearing completely as she moved to their son and took his motionless hand. He would be lying if he said he wasn't angry with himself.

Millicas had heard about the new Human device that allowed people to enter a game (Sirzechs didn't understand it much himself at first, but he assumed it was like an illusion one could interact with) and had asked to get one. It had been one of the few rare times the young boy had ever asked for anything, so naturally, Sirzechs was going to get one for his son. Grayfia, however, had put her foot down and told them no. She had been acting as a mother at the time, not Maou Lucifers Queen and servant, and told him to not buy the device for their child, saying she had been getting bad feelings about it.

As always with her feelings, she was right.

How he wished he had listened to her. He had gone behind her back and bought it as a surprise for their son, he had even helped the lad set it up (in truth he just sat there, trying to read the instructions as Millicas had easily begun setting the device up) and watched as his son entered the game after uttering the phrase "Link Start." He had been disappointed to learn he couldn't view his son's actions within the game, not without some sort of screen hooked up to the device. Though looking at the device, it seemed the feature had been removed entirely despite what the print said.

An hour later he learned of how his son was now trapped in the game called Sword Art Online, held hostage with 10,000 other players with no way to log out, and where dying in the game meant you'd die in real life.

Grayfia's anger was the only thing that kept Sirzechs from going to the human world and personally hunting down the creator of the NerveGear, Akihiko Kayaba, and burning him to ashes.

"L-Lucifer-sama!" The crimson-haired Maou stood up as a female in a maid uniform burst through the door, out of breath. "I-It's Leviathan-sama! S-She's trying to go to the human world and find Akihiko Kayaba, he's trapped her sister!"

_Could today get any worse?_

**And done!**

**Hehe, this story is inspired by **Punitor567's _Devils of Aincrad. _**If you're looking for a good SAO/DxD Fic I would suggest going to check it out! Gah! I want more of that fic, gimme gimme Punitor!**

**Not a lot to talk about here. Probably will start working on the first bit of the next chapter after this. Will be Issei focused, kinda, at least that's what the initial plan in my head is saying!**

**See ya next chapter everyone!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **The Following is a fan-based creation. I own nothing of the Sword Art Online or Highschool DxD series. Please support the official release.

**-Reviews-**

**reality deviant:** It's such a good story~ And thanks! I shall provide more!

**flo463**: Maybe, we'll have to wait and see!

**Metalax: **I believe this chapter answered your questions! Also, I've never read that story, but I have seen it as the most favorited SAO fic, I think I might read it now!

**Firesa:** Thanks!

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**Chapter 2: How Interesting**

_**-Issei-**_

How had everything gone so wrong, so fast?

I couldn't stop my legs from running underneath me, carrying me aimlessly in any direction that had a path.

Everything had been fine hours ago, I had been in my room, setting up my NerveGear with my friends and mother, and excitedly created my avatar and started running around in the virtual world I had been dreaming of playing and meeting cute girls in!

It had all been going so smoothly, I had stayed in low-level areas outside the starting town, killed a few mobs here and there and got my first loot. I had yet to meet any girls yet, but that was fine, I was having fun in something completely new and unbelievable.

Then the forced teleportation happened, and I was just one of many that got teleported to the center of the starting town. Everyone looked as confused as I did, and things only got worse when the sky started to _bleed._ It was the freakiest thing I had ever seen, blood just seeping out of cracks in the sky! The flood taking shape into that of a bodyless red cloaked being.

Said being claimed itself to be Akihiko Kayaba, creator of the NerveGear and Sword Art Online, and proceeded to inform everyone that leaving the game was no longer an option. Everyone including myself had quickly opened our menus to find that the logout option was completely removed, or perhaps it hadn't been there to begin with?

The cold chill that went down my spine still followed me, even now.

Kayaba had told us that the only way to be free it to beat the game, to clear all One Hundred floors fo Aincrad, the floating castle they were on, and left us with the warning that death would be permanent, and we would be killed in real life by the very device we used to enter this now death game of a world.

I didn't stay around long enough to let him finish, I didn't stay to see the thousands of other players break into a mass panic as the realization that this game was no longer a game of fun and adventure.

My legs had moved on their own, my body acted out of instinct, a deep primal urge to survive pushing me to move, to run, to fight with every fiber of my being. My vision became focused as I ran across one of the fields close to the Town of Beginnings. My right hand grasped the handle of the short sword that rested at my hip as one of the boar NPC's in the area spotted me and started charging.

I just kept running, drawing my blade as I rushed towards the very fake monster that could very much kill me. Something built up inside me, something that made me fill hot, grit my teeth and strain my eyes as I swung my sword with everything I had at the enemy. There was a small resisting force as I struck the boar, moving to the side just a bit to avoid its charge and slice into its side starting at its head. A growl escaped me as I pushed forward, ignoring the beasts cry of pain as I forced my blade further through it. With a shout, I cut the beast in half.

_"I won't die here Kayaba! You hear me?! I'll beat this game, no matter what you throw at me!"_

And I kept running, fighting anything that got in my way for the rest of the day.

* * *

_**-Third person-**_

Akihiko Kayaba frowned as he started at one of his many screens, watching as a live stream of a player within SAO was being broadcasted to the world. It was concerning, has the final version of the NerveGear did not have the capability to stream anything to any devices or hook up to anything other than the needed devices to use it. The last version before the final product of the Gear certainly had the capability to, before he decided to turn his game into what it was now.

The parents of the child, Hyoudou Issei, had set up the stream to be live for all to see as a way for others to view what was happening, and offer small comfort to other families whose children were victims of the SAO Incident should their son come across any of them.

He had been sure to discard and destroy all previous versions of the NerveGear to keep something like this from happening. No one needed to know what was happening within the world he created, especially those of a higher place within the world.

He was about to initiate a plan to get the one streaming killed the boy. It was unfair, even by his standards, as the boy did not know he had made himself a massive liability to his plans, but stopped himself while playing an older part of the stream from three days ago, the day of his announcement that SAO was now a world of survival.

Issei's angry shout, his declaration of beating the game gave the man pause. It was exactly what he was looking for, the kind of person the world would need when the time came.

Kayaba's frown deepened. He couldn't kill someone he was looking for, or rather, the type of person he had hoped would be in his game. He looked back at the screen, it had been three days into the game, and Issei had not once returned to the Town of Beginnings, instead focusing on leveling and using whatever items the mobs of the game gave him, resting it small safe zones. The boy had been serious in his determination and was showing it.

No, he couldn't kill the boy, even if he posed a serious risk to his plans.

_I will deal with any issues that come my way. _Kayaba thought, ideas on how to use the situation to his advantage forming in his mind. It would be a while before any of the Factions in the world realized what he was doing, and by then it would be too late to stop him.

They would have learned of it soon or later regardless, plus it was not like he could shut the stream down without killing Issei, and the site the government of Japan had personally set up was to well protected to simply takedown. It didn't help that the leader of the Yokai faction had also issued protections over the site in collaboration with the resident Devils when it was found out one of her daughters, as well as the son and sister of two Maou's of Hell, was trapped within the game.

Two of his hideouts had already been discovered within the last three days, and he had been forced to move twice as many times as he was nearly caught. It was impressive what the Devil's and Yokai factions could do together if they had a common goal.

It was of no concern to him who was trapped in his game of other races. If they weren't human, they would not obtain the full benefits of Sword Art Online. Yasaka's eldest daughter, however, was another story.

Kayaba looked to another screen, one that was monitoring another promising candidate that had also not returned to the Town of Beginning since the Incident. The player was currently fighting his way through one of the many dungeons only Beta Testers would know by heart.

_Kirigaya Kazuto, what an interesting young man..._

**And done!**

**This chapter is slightly shorter than the last, but I did everything I wanted with it!**

**Not much to really say, truly, can't think of much!**

**Oh! Right, the next chapter will be Kazuto (Kirito) focused, with a tiny time skip, not much, but enough to move beyond the starting days, it's already longer than these last two chapters, and I'm only half way done!**

**Hope you enjoyed, see ya next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **The Following is a fan-based creation. I own nothing of the Sword Art Online or Highschool DxD series. Please support the official release(s).

* * *

**Chapter 3**

_**-Kirito-**_

One month.

One month, and four days.

That's how long we had been trapped in Sword Art Online, that's how long it had been since Akihiko Kayaba told us of how to get out of this Death Game of his. What did we have to show for the month?

Still living on the first floor with no clue as to where the Boss Room is, people losing hope let and right, and the cherry on this cake of disappointment was two thousand players dead, three hundred of which were fellow Beta Testers.

Argo had confirmed half of those Testers were killed by other players, the thought made my fist tighten.

Of all the people in the game, Argo "The Rat" was probably the most prosperous in her ventures. She had set up an information network within the first two weeks and had been coordinating things behind the scenes, trying to keep people safe, sometimes for a price, sometimes for free. Despite her efforts, people still died, the majority of them not heeding hers and other Beta Testers warnings. Those deaths had dropped significantly recently when that information was released by the Argo Network.

It was equally amazing as it was disturbing how it took so many deaths for people to finally start listening.

_Not that it's my problem_ _really._ Sure it disturbed me that so many were dead, but they died because of their own actions or the actions of others that refused to accept reality. _We Beta Testers did all we could to help prepare the new players, and even we weren't ready, what more do they want?_

I knew it wasn't entirely their fault, when things were bad people naturally looked for something to blame, this something happened to be us Beta Testers. Making themselves believe that it was somehow it was our fault that so many had died, thinking that we had taken all the good grinding spots for ourselves before anyone else could get to them.

They weren't wrong, but they had the wrong reasons.

"Hey there Kii-bou~" I withheld a totally not girly yelp of surprise as a pair of arms wrapped around my shoulder, a smaller form pressing against my back.

"Argo, what have I told you about doing that?" I didn't have to turn around to know she was grinning like a mad cat.

"Not my fault you were not focused on your surroundings-na!" Huffing as she pulled away, I turned around and leveled the girl with a glare.

She was shorter than me, with short curly blonde-brown hair and brown eyes. Her most distinctive feature was the three whiskers like lines across both her cheeks, mysterious markings no one knew the origins of. She wore light armor and a simple tan cloak with the hood currently down, a rarity for her, as she liked to hide her image from others.

She had been one of the few people I had talked to and befriended back in the beta, someone I most likely would have never met or given thought about had it not been for the intervention of a certain freeloader living with me and my family.

"What are you doing down here, Argo? Is there some special item I haven't found out about?" The Rat shook her head making me raise a brow.

"Nothing of the sort Kii-bou, I'm just delivering some info to ya personally, free of charge-ya!" I frowned as the grin she had been wearing was dropped, a serious look entering her eyes.

_"The entrance to the Boss Room has been found."_

My heart stopped for a minute.

There were no words spoken after she had said that, my mind processing the new and admittedly exciting information. After all this time, after all the death and hysteria, of one month of searching for it, the Boss of the first floor had finally been found?

I didn't bother wanting to fact check it, Argo had undoubtedly done that a thousand times before coming to tell me, she probably already went to the room personally to see it with her own eyes.

"When was it found?"

"3 hours ago, the player that found it instantly contacted me. The fool tried going in alone but I ordered him to wait or I'd skin him alive-ya." I blinked in surprise at the annoyed tone Argo took when she talked about the player.

"Friend of yours?"

"Unfortunately," The hostility one would expect with that answer wasn't there. I filed this info away for later.

"How many of the others know?" I asked.

"I spread the info out for free through my Brokers an hour ago after confirming everything, I've had to go tell people that a newer version of the guide book was released as well, the Boss has changed since the Beta."

"And you know this how...?"

"The idiot didn't listen to my order and went in." My eyes widened at that, who was suicidal enough to try and take on the boss by themselves? "He's okay, thankfully, and I got him out before anything could really happen to him-ma."

I nodded, taking it all in. It was nice to know that some things had changed with the Boss, even if it could have cost a player their life, of their own accord, it would save us some potential danger down the line.

"There's going to be a meeting tomorrow about going to the Boss Room, all capable players are encouraged to join to talk-ta." Argo pulled up her hood. "I won't be attending, I have... other engagements at the time-ma."

"Like wha-" She was already gone by the time I looked up from my thinking. She was seriously too good at that.

_Well, I might as well finish up what I was here for._ Turning, I made my way deeper into the dungeon.

* * *

**_-Third Person-_**

Yuuki Asuna was many things in life.

Daughter of Yuuki Shouzou, CEO of RECT Inc, as desired by her mother.

Daughter of Yuuki Kyouko, the woman who made her - Asuna - into the prim and proper young woman she was in the Real World.

A Perfect Student, getting nothing but top marks in all her classes, as dictated by her mother.

Truthfully, anything she was in life, she had her mother to _thank _for it, all of it.

Since the day she was born, Asuna had her entire life planned out for her by her _beloved_, mother. From what school's she would attend, what classes she would take, what company she would inevitably work for, to even the type of man she would marry when the time came.

But here? In Sword Art Online, the greatest Death Game ever devised?

She was Asuna, Slayer of Monsters and Explorer of Dungeons!

At first, it had all been so terrifying, to the point she locked herself in a room for the first two weeks after the announcement by Akihiko Kayaba that the only way out was to clear all One Hundred floors, and death would mean finding out if there truly was an afterlife.

It was at the end of the second week that she made up her mind to finally take fate into her own hands. No one she knew was around to tell her what to do, her mother wasn't there to command her to stay safe and wait things out until someone, somehow, rescued them or cleared the game. For the first time, she could do as she pleased of her own will.

She chose to die fighting.

For another two weeks she stayed in the first dungeon she found, fighting day in and day out until her body gave out, resting for only the minimal amount of time it took to heal up and regain herself. She had reached the deepest pits of hell and kept going, and going, and going.

She had lost all sense of time within the Dungeon, it had felt like years and the dank and darkness of the place did little to aid her deteriorating mental health.

Finally, her actions caught up to her, she had gone too deep before she was ready and prepared, and found an enemy that had easily overwhelmed her. It had beaten her into a corner, breaking her armor and shattering her weapon.

Death had finally shown itself to her.

And promptly ran away.

Asuna could not remember exactly what happened, her memory being fuzzy from the lack of proper rest. Someone had appeared in a flash, batting the monster away from her and ending its digital life. Someone had saved her, by chance or fate, Asuna did not care anymore, nor was she mad about the fate she decided for herself being taken away from her.

"At this rate, we'll reach the bottom of the Dungeon Sona-senpai!" Asuna said cheerfully as she rested against the wall of a Safe Zone within the dungeon, downing a bottle of Healing Potion. The taste was odd, but sweet, unlike medicine in the real world.

Across from her was a girl roughly Asuna's age, clad in light armor that consisted of the shin and lower arm guards, as well as a breastplate all a shining grey color. Underneath the armor pieces, she was clad in black long sleeved shirt and matching pants with purple accents running down the length of them. Her hair a pure black cut in a cute bob cut and stunning purple eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses accessories she had found.

This was the young woman that had saved Asuna's life, as well as the person she looked up to the most.

"From what info I bought from that Broker, we're just two levels away from reaching the bottom," Sona said, staring at a map of their current floor, marking off all the locations they had been to. "We'll head back to the surface for now and gather more supplies, and sell the info we gained to another Info Broker about the enemies changed on this floor, they do not match the intel provided by the Guide the Beta Testers put out anymore." She glanced over at Asuna, feeling her stare and saw the girl giving her a pout.

"Don't look at me like that, we have been down here for three days already."

"But we're so close! Why turn back now? We still have plenty of potions and our armor is still in decent shape!"

"Perhaps, but that could take another three or four days to clear the _next _level of this place between the two of us and I do not want to split up again after you-"

"It was one time! Once! Plus that slime was something else entirely!" Asuna shuddered, hugging herself. Sona shook her head, repressing the memory of the sight she saw when she found Asuna in the odd monster's clutches.

"My point exactly." The amethyst eyed girl stood up, putting her map back in her inventory. "Plus, I would like to take a bath."

The mention of a bath made Asuna perk up and Sona stopped a tiny smirk from appearing on her lips. A bath was one of the few pleasures SAO allowed, and Sona had quickly realized she could use it to get her companion to agree to anything she wanted to do.

"A bath sounds nice..." Asuna muttered to herself, standing up.

_Humans are such fascinating beings._ Sona thought as they walked towards the exit of the safe zone. They always found ways to catch her interest.

A month ago she had been irritated by them, they had driven her friend and rival, Rias Gremory into a frenzy with a new invention that the other Heiress would not stop talking about, a machine that could "put you in a completely different world, made by human hands!" she had described it. Sona had of course done proper research out of curiosity and found the machine, NerveGear, powered by something called FullDive did in fact transport ones mind/consciousness into a completely virtual world that you could interact with.

It was so fascinating, mere humans had been able to create such a device that typically only Magic could do, and they intended to use it for entertainment? Had any other race created such a device, they would have used it to imprison and torment others.

Which was why Sona was certain that the creator of the NerveGear wasn't human.

Sona long since regretted steal- _borrowing, _the NerveGear. The Sitri Heiress had no interest in actually playing SAO, but her curiosity about the device and what it could do got the better of her, and now she was paying for it.

Not that it was all bad for the Devil. Sure she could not use her magic of Devil abilities in this world, but what made it better was finding a candidate for her Peerage, the very girl she saved and was walking next to. After getting Asuna out fo her defeatest mentality, the human girl had proven to be not only reliable but highly intelligent and adaptable, constantly challenging Sona to adapt and learn herself, something that both annoyed and thrilled the girl.

Sona would not say Rias was dumb or anything, she was very smart and clever, but compared to Asuna, Sona did not think she could go back to playing chess with the red-head Gremory Heiress.

"Just how many of you are there?!"

Both girls stopped momentarily as they heard a voice echo throughout the corridors of the dungeon. Sharing a glance the two kicked off, racing towards the source of the voice that might be in trouble. Rounding a corner they both stopped to find a boy clad in black driving his sword through two monsters neck at once, making the mobs flicker before shattering into digital bits.

He immediately spun around to parry a strike from another, pushing it off balance and going for another strike from the opening he created.

Sona was the first to react, shaking herself into focus and dashing forward with a dagger in hand. Seeing her friend jump into action Asuna followed suit, drawing her rapier and lunging into battle to help the mysterious boy out.

* * *

_**To be continued**_

**It's been a while, hasn't it?**

**Lots of stuff going on, new projects started, and a tad bit of laziness on my part. In truth I had 3/4ths of this Chapter written for months now, just sitting, waiting to be finished. So, here you go. As for spelling mistakes and stuff despite sitting here for so long, I don't really go back and check things, I skim over it and if I catch something, I'll fix it.**

**Anyway, got some Kirito in, as well as Argo, Asuna, and Sona.**

**This will probably be all there is for a long while. My new focus is my Dragon Ball story, and I want to try and get through the Frieza Saga by the end of Summer. After that, I might focus on this on during the Fall and Winter. Or I'll finally get one of my Original Stories off the ground after all these years of planning and creating. Who knows.**

**I will be answering one Reviewer as they've been waiting for a while and some answers are going to be a while.**

**DarkJackel: **Why Sirzerch cannot hunt Kayaba down - It's not like he isn't trying to, it's just the Kayaba is good at hiding. How can you hide from a Maou? Be smarter than one, as well as have the advantage of not letting anyone, even your closest friend, have a clue as to where you could be. Earth is massive, and that's not counting the other Realms he could be hiding in without anyone's knowledge. That's not to say he and Grayfia aren't busy doing the best they can now though, I assure you. Plus, he is a Maou with other responsibilities to take care of. As for what Millicas will bring... Tis a secret.

Your second Review - Issei is fully aware he is still streaming, it'll come into play later. This is all I will answer, everything else will have to come from future chapters.

**Until next time everyone, take care. If you want more from me, you'll find me in the Dragon Ball Z section.**


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